![]() At the very start of the story, your character is bonded with a supremely powerful (and malignant) spirit, trapped inside a black sword. The gameplay is supported with a narrative that hits some pretty intense notes, too. While the 4:3 aspect ratio is a little distracting, it’s a joy to watch your carefully managed units tackling the increasingly powerful enemies, too. There is all the customary depth of a NIS title – including the ability to power stuff up by fighting random battles – and building ideal units of characters is a fundamentally pleasurable learning curve that continues through most of the game. This system is exactly like Ogre Battles’, and since developers don’t really make these games anymore, playing this now has been a treat. If both leaders survive, then after a round the combat is suspended until the next turn. If the leader of either side is defeated, the unit is dissolved. When you encounter an enemy, both parties will have a swing at one another. Then you command these units around a map, tactics-style. Before battle, you build small units of a handful of different character types (soldiers, monsters, wizards, clerics, etc). The best way to describe it is a blend of Ogre Battle (not Tactics Ogre, the RTS Ogre Battle), and Fire Emblem. Phantom Brave is a very fine game indeed, but this is the first time I’ve played Soul Nomad, and I am so glad I got the chance. With that being said, I actually prefer Soul Nomad. You really should have done something to make it feel like they were linked together in some way. That in itself doesn’t bother me (as I rather enjoy PS2 aesthetics), but what does get to me is the lack of cohesion across the “collection”. ![]() The aesthetics of the game are as gorgeous as NIS is well-known for, but it’s nonetheless clear that the game was built for the PlayStation 2. This is the first time that this has been re-released since the original PlayStation 2 launch, and that means that the game is locked to the old 4:3 screen format and resolution. Soul Nomad & The World Eaters isn’t so lucky. ![]() You can thank the existence of Wii, PSP, and PC re-releases for all this, as the game has undergone continuous development over the years, and there is even “DLC” included in the package as an added bonus. It’s in widescreen now, and while the sprites seem a little low resolution in comparison to everything else, the fuzziness is an oddly aesthetic effect that works to the game’s benefit. Nippon Ichi has given the first of the two titles in the collection – Phantom Brave – the HD treatment. Just be aware that the presentation of this package is deeply disappointing. Both these games might be incredibly niche tactics JRPGs in 2021, but since we’ve never seen anyone try and recreate these games again, both of them feel fresh and interesting to play. Bundled together, however, and it suddenly becomes a “retro collection” as such, and while it may not have as many titles as, say, the Mana collection, between the two of them you’re looking at a monstrously large project to play through it all. Nippon Ichi has dipped into its deep history to dust off two of its games that would be a tough sell as separate releases without a massive project behind them to remake them. I really like the concept of Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1.
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